Thursday, December 5, 2013

Government & Its Delusions of Grandeur

By, Chris Rossini

Samuel Rutherford once said: “Every man by nature is a freeman born; by nature no man cometh out of the womb under any civil subjection to king, prince, or judge.”

This has not changed. We are still born as free thinking individuals. Yes (like cattle) we are immediately branded with something called a Social Security number. And yes, revelations from whistleblowers tell us that the NSA is watching our every move (and our locations as well) at all times.

And yet...despite it all, the freedom to think our own thoughts, choose our own values, make our own plans, and act accordingly has not left us. We may live in a twisted Orwellian environment, but our nature as freeborn humans remains intact.

Being born as a free thinking individual carries with it a tremendous responsibility. In essence, you're responsible for yourself. Only you can think your own thoughts. Only you can choose your values. Only you can choose your actions, that may or may not lead to an accomplishment of a goal, or end, that you have also chosen.

This huge responsibility has the potential to create tremendous upside, as well as a tremendous downside. You don't have to look very far to find individuals who have risen to unbelievable heights. But the downside is always an option as well. We are each free to shirk our responsibility, to try to place all responsibility in the hands of others, to try to live our lives as if others set the course.

The greatest physical manifestation of this downside resides in the institution known as government. Specifically, when individuals give up on themselves, and instead look to the Pharoah President to set the course.

The President will not disappoint. He will provide the visions. He will uphold his end of the fantasy. Each and every time, the visions will turn out to be nothing but delusions, but by that time, they merely become an afterthought.

New visions will be created, and new plans will be made. Success is not the purpose. Belief in the fantasy by those who have tossed aside their freedom to direct their lives, as well as the concomitant power granted to the President is the purpose. The results are immaterial.

We could (if we wanted to) follow the breadcrumbs left behind by 200+ years of folly all the way back to the creation of the U.S. Constitution, and analyze each delusion along the way. But in the interest of brevity, let's just look at the last two Presidents.

On Nov. 2, 2004, former President George W. Bush described his big delusion of grandeur:

The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands.

Right away...total nonsense.

So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world…Today, America speaks anew to the peoples of the world: All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.

We are almost 10 years away from W's vision, and the results have been the exact polar opposite. The U.S., with it's policy of bringing freedom via destruction, accomplished only the later: massive destruction. Go right down the line, from Iraq to Afghanistan to Libya and there isn't an inkling of liberty anywhere to be seen.

W's visions stuck American citizens a $2 Trillion bill, countless destroyed lives, an economy that has been bled dry, and (as an extra kick in the chops) the revelations that we Americans are living in a Surveillance State.

With freedom comes the potential, should we chose to do so, to throw it all away. A shortage of power-hungry people does not exist. They're a dime-a-dozen.

Enter Obama.

Yesterday, members of the peanut gallery were tripping over themselves. For Obama, ever so eloquently, set out a new vision. His would not be to bring freedom to the rest of the Earth. No...that bad boy needs a breather. He would instead dedicate the rest of his reign to fixing "inequality" in America:

I believe this is the defining challenge of our time: making sure our economy works for every working American. That’s why I ran for president. It was the center of last year’s campaign. It drives everything I do in this office.

Obama went on to praise Lincoln, FDR, and LBJ. The damage that just those three did to the American spirit gives you a good indication as to what's ahead once Obama starts acting on his delusions.

Obama hasn't the foggiest idea as to what's destroying what was once known as The American Dream. He will merely add to its destruction. He will not end the Fed. He will not end the Military Empire. He will not abolish the minimum wage. He will not remove the astounding number of regulations that literally cripple economic activity.

Obama will only add to the pain. And just as we can now revisit W's delusions 10 years later, we'll be able to look back in 2023 and see that Obama was full of it too. It can't be stressed enough though: success is not the object. Ten years from now, Obama's nonsense will not make a difference. For in 2023, there will be a new charlatan expounding his delusions to thunderous applause.

The key takeaway is this: Each of us must individually, and intellectually, break away from this fantasyland nightmare. We must embrace our humanity and not throw it away to the charlatans. Since we are born free, we must embrace that freedom. We must take hold and cherish our responsibility as free-thinking individuals. Yes, it can be scary. But that's part of the life scenario.

We may be alone in our thoughts. We may be alone in being responsible for ourselves. But we are hardly alone in our quest to survive and live well. We rely on each other tremendously. I did not create the keyboard that I'm typing on, nor the chair that is acting as my seat. In fact, as I look around my living room, I created nothing that is in it. All of it was acquired through peaceful exchange.

That is our way out of the nightmare. Treating each other like human beings...not barbarians. Non-aggression, peaceful exchange, and private property lifted humans from dirt to skyscraper. Give it away, and the charlatans will take us back to the dirt.

Their promises of utopia using the tools of theft, murder, fiat money and coercion must be peacefully tossed aside. It can be done in the simplest of ways: refuse to believe in their fantasies.

We have it in our ability to live as human beings are meant to live. It's only a choice away.